{ fray day 6 } Many pieces make the whole

* Photos above from Fray Cafe 2 in Austin, Texas.

What is Fray Day?

Fray Day is an annual event brought to you by the storytelling website {fray} that takes place in cities all around the world on the same weekend. Each event features interactive art, featured performers, and a storytelling open mic. For an example, check out what we did last year.

Did you know?

» Fray Day 6 was worked on by dozens of people all over the world.

» Fray Day 4 took place in 2 cities, Fray Day 5 in 10, and Fray Day 6 took place in 11 cities.

» All combined, over a thousand people participated in Fray Day 6.

Previous events:

» Fray Cafe 2
» Fray Day 5
» Fray Cafe
» Fray Day 4
» Fray Day 3
» Fray B-Day
» Fray Camp

Other stuff:

» SF Press Info
» Last Year's FAQ
» Open Mic Guidelines

Donate to Fray Day

You can help us by making a donation to Fray Day with PayPal. Thanks!

Fray: Many pieces make the whole

Every Fray Day has a theme to gently guide the event. FD3 was the classic "tell your stories," FD4 was "you are what you express," and FD5 centered on the world-wide theme with "a global celebration of personal stories." This year's theme is "many pieces make the whole." Read on to find out why.

Download your very own Fray Day 6 desktop wallpaper: 1024x768 or 800x600.
It all started with those wood type blocks. They're for sale in the little store downstairs from me. Every day I walked by them and stopped to stare. They just captivated me for some reason. Something about the cacophony of shapes, styles, and colors, coming together to make something seamless and complete.

Then it hit me. I went downstairs and asked the owner of the store if I could play with the blocks for a while. It took an hour or two, but when I was done, I knew what the theme of this year's Fray Day was all about, visually and spiritually.

Just as all those blocks come together to form "Fray Day 6," so do we all come together to make Fray Day. Every year I'm astounded by the wild variety of people who come together, sometimes at the last minute, to help and perform and sing and clean and make Fray Day what it is.

And just as Fray Day is made of many people coming together to form a whole, I believe our lives are made up of a million daily stories. It's all those stories, big and small, added up, that make us who we are. In the end, we're nothing if not a long series of stories. Many pieces make us whole.

And finally, Fray Day 6 falls almost exactly a year after the events of September 11, 2001. And while that's not on purpose (the birthday of the site is September 16, and that was just the closest Saturday), it's still significant. As you probably know, we published a series of stories after 9.11 called Missing Pieces. In Judiasm, you sit shiva and mourn for one year after a death. This Fray Day, one year after 9.11, it's my hope that we can all come out of this period of mourning, fill in our missing pieces with new ones, and move forward. Many pieces make the whole.

So that's my thinking. If it all smacks of artsy fartsy nonsense to you, no problem. I hope you'll come and enjoy Fray Day as always. But if you're planning on performing, all I ask is that you devote some thought to this idea, and how it might apply to your life and your stories. Can you think of a story that shows how many pieces have made you whole?

Come to Fray Day and tell that story.

– Derek 21 Jul 02 @ 6:41PM

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Fray Day 6 took place in 11 cities across the globe: